Thursday, 25 February 2010

My latest achievement is the encounter I had with Noise lab ( Guerrilla Arts Pop Up Store) two weeks ago.

I originally went to the store in Manchester, based in the heart of Market Street for what I perceived to be a meeting about the space and the opportunities they had to exhibit in. I arrived with some optimism to later learn that in fact it was a pitch by individual student groups to propose why they should exhibit there....

Utter gob smack!! I had about 15 minutes to prepare something....I figured that showing them why we are D&AD and what makes us individual to other courses was a significant point to raise!! So, I opened several blogs, got up photos of our current exhibition in the Holden Gallery Cafe, and I showed them Tee Twelve and DR.ME.

Successfully they must have liked what they saw as they have offered us the top floor exhibition space from the 30th March till the 3rd April. It is an amzing opportunity for D&AD, for us as designers and for us as a course. It will end what has been a roller coaster of a ride. I'd like to think of it as a celebration, it is in preparation of our actual degree show but it is also an opportunity to show the rest of the world what it is we're made of.

I will include more details on the actual show nearer to the time, so book it in the diary!

Just a quick look at the exhibition that was help nearly two weeks ago now.The Holden Gallery is part of the Art School and has opened the doors to students to allow several exhibitions to take place. Alessandra Mostyn who curated the show did a fantastic job of organising the show and the work exhibited look great.

It has given us a chance to showcase our work, enabling the other students to of the art School to get involved whilst they sit and chat with friends.

Tuesday, 23 February 2010

Whilst on 'Fleming Design' Blog, I came across a link for telescopic text....as it sounded intriguing I wanted to know more!The link went on to the first image (see below) as there was limited description I used my initiative and began clicking. Clicking followed with more clicking which in turn expanded the text...to create telescopic text. An incredible developing piece of text that can be adjusted by the viewer to create their own experience e.g:

The text grows...and grows...and grows to create a script based on tea!I love it, he has created an interesting website that wants the viewer to find out more and be in control. It is clever and amusing, slightly repetitive but constantly engaging.

Monday, 22 February 2010

The following images and text are from a recent blog I found whilst researching, as part of my initial stages I love to find out more and fully get to grips with the planning of a project.

The blog is a fantastic resource for learning more about design and designers who are creating impacting and effective design. Each image I have chosen because it has a relation to the work I am concentrating on now, the detailed description explains but if you want to know more see the website details at the bottom of this blog.

I am not going to comment on each image as it is quite clear why I have chosen them, I love engaging and installation design, anything that evokes a response and interacts with the audience ticks all my boxes!Please enjoy.

"According to Kim Ji-Hwan and Jin Sol from zero per zero, each city’s various railway systems should reflect the character of that city. In an effort to infuse the city’s identity into its subway map, while also trying to simplify the original map, the designers produced a series of original maps for three cities (Seoul, Tokyo and Osaka) in the size of 100 x 70cm (39” x 28")

Seoul Railway Seoul boasts 600 years of history as the capital of the nation, and features the grand river, the Han Gang, flowing across it. The Han River is the symbol of Seoul. Representation of the Han River in this map mimics the curvature in the middle of the Tae-Geuk mark of the national flag of Korea. The overall circular shape of the map was also inspired by the Tae-Geuk mark. The brighter area in the centre of the map, seen up close in the detail shot 1, shows the territory of Han Yang, the old capital of the Cho-Sun Dynasty. This was the old Seoul marked by the Four Gates, and the growth of the city becomes clear when compared to the modern metropolis."

“Absolutely," says Peace it Together, a non-profit organization that empowers youth to promote peace through dialogue, filmmaking, and multimedia. Since 2004, Peace it Together has been facilitating summer camps that bring together youth from Palestine, Israel, and Canada to create short films about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict."

"In September 2008 Sagmeister Inc. participated in Droog Event 2: Urban Play. The public art installation consisted of 250,000 eurocents placed on the floor, covering more than 300sqm on a square in Amsterdam. The coins spelled out the sentence “Obsessions make my life worse and my work better.” The piece is part of the series “Things I have learned in my life so far” by Stefan Sagmeister."

"Tobias Hoss and Christian Schwentke from the University of Applied Sciences Konstanz, Germany designed an A1 size wall calender portraying the company MBTech, a subsidiary of Mercedes Benz, from a new angle. The calendar shows the services of this company in an unorthodox way and translates the highly technical processes in a friendly, humorous world. They created a world out of paper and cardboard showing the different fields MBTech is active in. Everything was cut, pasted, and photographed - no Photoshop. Beautiful illustrations!"

"One of my favourite information designers, Nicholas Felton, just released his 2008 Annual Report. He spends much of his time thinking about data, charts, and our daily routines. Therefore, he has created several personal annual reports (2007, 2006, 2005) that collate countless measurements of his year into a rich collection of graphs and maps reflecting the travel, photography, music, food, drink, and reading contained in the year. Feltron also launched a new site called Daytum which provide a tool to a larger audience to examine and communicate their habits and routines."

"This project from Toby Ng Kwong To is based on the scenario – If the world were a village of 100 people. There are a few different versions of this text in circulation about the world’s statistics. He neatly summarizes the world that we live in. He used information graphics to re-tell the story in another creative way and designed a set of 20 posters which contain most of the information. Toby Ng used simple vector graphics that related to a statistic in order to present the information in the simplest and most accessible way."

Sunday, 21 February 2010

Words do not describe my passion and admiration for Nike and all that they achieve in their adverts. Nike have always been at the top of my list for creativity and original thinking, they seem to surpass all barriers and expectations of the public. They are way above all their other competitors, they are fully engaging and interactive with their target audience. (Which is something I am always striving towards!)

Wieden and Kennedy are also a great inspiration and as I am in contact with Tony Davidson I'd love to be able to either get in contact again or go for work experience as could be potentially a great opportunity.

Whilst reading the most recent Grafik magazine, Joost Grootens is a named profile that instantly caught my attention.

"Joost Grootens studied architectural design at Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam from 1990 to 1995. After completing his final project – an interactive cd-rom on the complexity of architectural representation – Grootens went on to create his own studio. Between 1995 and 2000, he completed a number of projects in the fields of architecture, interactive media and public space.

1998 marked a turning point during which he designed his first book – Metaspaces, published by Black Dog Publishers in London. Since 2000, he has almost exclusively designed books in the fields of architecture, urban space and art, specializing on atlas projects, designing both the maps and the books themselves.

Grootens has won numerous prizes for his designs. Among them the 2009 Rotterdam Design Prize, two Gold Medals in the ‘Schönste Bücher aus aller Welt’ (Best Book Design from all over the World) competition in Leipzig, the Dutch Design Award for Graphic Design and the Red Dot: Grand Prix editorial design.

He is a lecturer of the Master’s program at Design Academy Eindhoven. He has also lectured at various schools in the Netherlands such as Berlage Institute Rotterdam. Additionally, he has conducted workshops at institutions in England, Japan, China, Taiwan and Indonesia."

http://www.grootens.nl/about.html

His work on the Atlas Series is a fantastic inspiration, again I find myself coming back to information design. I think I have an underlying passion for anything that is systematic and organised (similar to my own creative flow). His attention to detail and manner of displaying information is crucial to the success, he once said "books allow me to see the work, it is more profound", so from an architect to print maker the change is very difficult but this designer seems to have passed all barriers.

I am keen to investigate his design work to see how it can help and inspire my own project.

Friday, 19 February 2010

Happy 20th birthday, Adobe Photoshop

This isn't just software. It's a cultural phenomenon

Photoshop is twenty, just thought I'd let everyone know!!!

"Even though you (usually) don’t see it, Photoshop is used just about everywhere you look. From the billboards you see in the streets to the magazines you read and the movies you watch. Worldwide about 10 million creative minds like photographers, graphic designers, architects, advertisers and publishers use Photoshop every day. Even doctors and 3D artists use Photoshop these days."

I have been slightly neglectful recently, the reason for this is that I have been on a very stressful but exhilarating experience.Over Christmas I applied for the Manchester Masters programme, which is basically an opportunity for graduates of 2010 to stay and work in Manchester in several different companies. they would have a mentor throughout the year, would have experience in 4 placements and would end with a Masters in Business. There was also several other bonus included that were very pleasing!!!

The process of applying included answering several difficult questions and fulfilling a 40 sec you-tube video explaining why you would be an ideal candidate. You were allowed to be as creative as you liked and I took this opportunity to show them how I could apply myself.

After the deadline they then short listed 40 people who would try to win the hearts to become the final 10 candidates, there was a gruelling 2 day boot camp style interview where they would be judged on their team skills, personality and strategy thinking.

When I found out I had been short listed for the final 40, it felt like an incredible achievement. It would be a difficult but great experience to put on the CV!The interviews began on Tuesday (16th Feb) and we were thrown right in the deep end, with a panel of 15 judges from some of the top companies in Manchester we had a lot to prove and make ourselves shine above the rest. As part of the final 40, each and every person was as able as myself, and there were some key personalities that were clear from day 1! the first day included team work, presentation work and general leadership skills, which you were being assessed on from the word go. I have to say it was exciting, emotionally draining and exhilarating but I loved it...from the minute I got in there, I threw my all in to it.

I must have done something right as I was again short listed to day 2, so 40 people went to 20 people. At the end of day 2 (17th Wed) it would go from 20 to the final 10, which would be a scary prospect. Day 2 was equally as hard, even more so difficult as the tasks got harder and more challenging, but I worked at it constantly trying to show them the qualities and skills I have.

I have to say that myself and Alison who successfully got through were obviously disadvantaged than other people as we lacked the Marketing and PR knowledge that they had. Many of the competitors were either on a Marketing/Business/PR degree and they either had or were working in the industry. So, we had to work extra hard!

We didn't make the final 10, but to be honest I had already won! I wasn't disappointed as I didn't even expect to get short listed, but it was a great buzz to be selected and to prove what it is I can do. The people who did get through deserved it, they all equally had the qualities of what was expected and I wish them every success.

I have learnt that I should now play to my strengths, I realise I have a passion for design but I also enjoy and relish in communication. I love all aspects of communication, from social, to clientele presentation I have a natural ability and this is where I want to take my career. I also have decided to pursue a role within marketing and creative planning, so hopefully things are looking up!

During the first few months writing for sustainability design blog Inhabitat.com, it became immediately and increasingly evident how many designers were bathing in the new challenges of sustainability. The worlds of fashion, architecture, interior and product design continued to excel with an ecological conscience, launching countless contemporary designs every week. Although not focused to the work of Graphic Design, taking a quick look around Inhabitat it is evident a sense of contemporary Communication Design is appreciated. Critical dialogue however, discussing the relevant relationships between sustainability and graphic design, is almost vacant (with no more than 15-20 graphic-related features). This, it would seem is a recurring trend in the sustainable design communities.

“I wish I could report that it [graphic design] was doing its bit. Trouble is, tap “sustainable graphic design” into Google and you get a thousand suggested links. But, tap “Helvetica Movie” in, and guess what, you get fifteen thousand. So in cyberspace at least, that makes people 15 times as interested in a movie about a typeface than how to design responsibly. Great.” [Johnson Banks]

I am therefore, excited to have read this week that respectable designer, writer and critic Anna Gerber is currently writing a new book on Graphic Design and Sustainability, scheduled for publication by Laurence King in Spring 2009. I hope this book will give the Communication Designer a friendly kick in a sustainable direction and ultimately help our discipline play catch up to the rest of the creative industry.

Designer and author of the 2004 publication All Messed Up, Unpredictable-Graphics, Anna Gerber continues to write extensively for the likes of Creative Review, Print, Varoom, Idea and Eye. Furthermore, in collaboration with Teal Triggs, Gerber also wrote a dialogue for Blueprint last year, introducing the new postgraduate course, MA Design Writing Criticism at London College of Communications, which is scheduled to start this fall."

Something else to keep you up to date with research and inspiration that I am using towards my new brief, the blog below is a great resource, check it out:

Looking at the relationship between Glaser and Barnbrook, two esteemed designers with a highly creative out look. I am very much interested in designers who are consistently striving towards challenging design, and these two names are perfect!!

I have mentioned Glaser as an inspiration before, and he is just that. I love his work, it is evoking and challenging the way we perceive our world, allowing us to rise above and have our own opinion.

Barnbrook on he other hand is also a great influence, he came in to give us a talk last year and I have been more and more interested in his work. As he was involved with the 2000 First things First manifesto he will be a crucial influence for both by study and the Design:21 Brief.

If you feel like you want to know more, these following images/text are a start to my new self directed project. I have been exploring design responsibilities and roles of us as creatives, in our world today. The book "Citizen Designer" has been a great influence and teacher to how I want to structure this project. You may be wondering why now, at this stage in third year have I chosen this subject? Well my time at university has allowed me to become the designer/ conceptual thinker that I am now and it is only up to now, that I can realise and fully understand what design means. Personally there are too many 'pretty' and 'anal' visual graphics, so I want to begin at the fundamentals, concentrating on the 'use' of designers in our world. Looking at the purpose and meaning of design/adverts and how these engage with their intended audience.Once again my learning curve begins...